Friday, October 31, 2008

I know I said the Wednesday night's post would be my last about baseball for a while. But I think the following is hysterical (written across the bottom of the screen on NBC):

"Due to Parade of Champions coverage, 'Days of our Lives' will be aired overnight at 3:05AM."

hahahaha. For some reason I find that ridiculously amusing. Overnight??

Also, some quotes from the parade:

Jamie Moyer: "This is better than winning the World Series." (about the parade and being with all the fans, thanking them profusely)

One of the thousands of kids skipping school today: "Philly is way too important!"

Another kid: "Oh my gosh, I can't even explain it, I'm so happy."

And to close it out, a few Phillie Phacts:

The Phillies are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of American professional sports.

The Philadelphia Phillies are the first Major League Baseball team to join the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership Program which motivates organizations across the world to purchase green power in order to minimize environmental impact. The Phillies announced on April 30, 2008 that their home field, Citizens Bank Park, will be powered with 20 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green energy purchased in Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Certificates (RECs).[39][40] The EPA stated that this purchase holds the record in professional sports for the largest purchase of 100% renewable energy.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Is what has overtaken Philadelphia (at nearly midnight on a frigid Wednesday night, mind you). This is nuts. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. Dan & I just went outside of our bordering-Center City-and-South Philly apartment and there were literally thousands of people gathered in streets and intersections and sidewalks. Some of my favorite observations:

Everyone is just so happy. We walked out our door and were immediately bombarded by half a dozen people giving us high fives. Guys and gals in the street were hugging and kissing and just had these expressions of pure joy. It was truly beautiful and special to watch. It was an experience I'll never forget.

I love that the city completely bonds together. It truly is a CITY team. It's not just that Philly happens to have baseball fans. Practically everyone is thrilled about the win. And there were people out there that weren't just wearing Phillies gear (which, don't get me wrong, was at least 90% of the crowd, maybe 94%), but there were people in Eagles jackets, Sixers jerseys, Flyers paraphernalia...it was awesome. It's like it doesn't matter which Philly team it is; if it's about Philly, Philadelphians love and support it.

The Phillies totally forgot about their trophy because they were too busy congratulating the Rays for their fabulous performance (Charlie Manuel's very first comment), profusely thanking and giving credit to their insurpassably devoted fans, thanking their teammates, thanking their coaches, and overall diverting attention away from themselves individually.

Everyone came together as a team. I loved that complete strangers were running down the street yelling and slapping hands with fans of every other possible ethnicity, socioeconomic class, religion, you name it. Tonight, every Philadelphian is a Phillie, and is a winner.

Overall, I am SO grateful to be here right now. I was out of town for the past 5 days and was so sad about it. Hello blessing that it happened to get postponed to 3.5 hours after my plane landed. :) Pictures to come tomorrow.

(After the parade on Friday - on Halloween day, no less! could it get better than that?? - we will return to our regularly scheduled posting, and I promise I won't talk about baseball nonstop, or gloat. Maybe.)

Monday, October 27, 2008

I live in Philadelphia, where I enjoyed Games 1 & 2 of the World Series. Dan & I spent a lovely weekend in southwestern Florida, where we energetically watched Games 3 & 4. This morning, Dan flew home, but I am still in FL for a work meeting until Wednesday. So I'll watch Game 5 here.

Clearly I am very much hopeful and excited for tonight's game to be the last, even though I'm still in the reverse state from where my beloved Phils are playing. If (if if if highly-unlikely if) they must return to Tampa to shut out the Rays there, I will be back in Philly. Cruel. I'm totally bitter that I haven't been able to be in Philly for ANY of the games to experience the excitement there. At least I can have Dan report back tonight.

And can we please just talk about the amazingness of the last two games?? What??? Moyer, Rollins, Howard, Werth, Bartlett, Blanton...holy heck. Game 3 = nail-bitingly incredible. Game 4 = YEE-AH!! Special shout-out to my wonderful and patient husband for explaining the ins-and-outs of baseball to his I-grew-up-watching-Pete-Sampras-and-Steffi-Graf wife.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

A temple and the World Series all in fewer than 2 weeks?? The righteous truly are blessed! ;)

Somewhat tangentially, I do love how the entire city rallies behind its sports teams. Dan & I have discussed how we think it's great that Philly only has one of many rally-worthy things, such as a baseball/football/basketball/hockey team (though we wish it had more than one airport). This means that pretty much everyone in the city loves the team in question, with no division amongst the members.

That also means that the city goes absolutely nuts any time one of those teams wins. Take last night, for instance - I was told (since a) we had gone to bed after the 6th inning so we wouldn't be exhausted for seminary and b) I don't wake up for anything) by Dan that the noise after the game was unbelievable - yelling, crying, fireworks (sounding like they were right in our parking lot, in fact), and general exuberance, preventing him from falling back asleep for the duration of it.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I think the blogosphere is over-politicized already, but I just have to say how I am seriously so disappointed with both of our presidential candidates. A year ago, I was thrilled that John McCain was entering the race, as I'd admired him for years, and was so excited when he got on the GOP ticket. I liked Obama very much, as well, and admired his character and spunk. Perhaps my favorite thing for both candidates was that they weren't overly concerned about pleasing their party or anyone else and were willing to stand up for what is right.

Aaaand that's pretty much all down the tubes. I'm absolutely sick of how neither of them can say anything about what they believe and why they think it's a good idea/why it will work; instead, all they can do is fling insults at the other. One of my biggest political pet peeves is when either side assumes the other is just plain evil and has no good intentions. Okay, perhaps they might go about things in a different way than you would, but in general, I really believe most politicians are out to help our country (misguided as they sometimes might be). In any case, clearly neither of them is focused on helping our country right now - they're too busy trying to smear the name of the other guy.

Case in point - this morning, NPR did a whole story about fact checking last night's debate. Fact checking? Seriously? They need to make sure what a PRESIDENTIAL candidate said was truthful?? That should be the least of our worries. They interviewed Obama's campaign manager and asked about a McCain smear campaign saying that he was opposed to stem cell research, despite the fact that he's voted in favor of it for the past 7 years. The campaign manager had some ridiculous retort about how that's what McCain's party stands for and...and...previous to the past 7 years, maybe he voted against it... Yeah, ridiculous. This is not at all to say that the McCain campaign hasn't done the exact same to Obama - I'm sure they have; I'm just too sick of it all right now to look it up.

Anyway, November better get here mighty fast. And if the market could improve in that time, also, that'd be swell.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

I think every general conference has met me with internal aspirations for announcements - the calling of David Babbel to general church leadership, a temple in Brasília, and perhaps most importantly, a Temple in Philadelphia.

This conference, however, found my mind encumbered by no such speculation. I was really mostly just excited to listen to the living prophet and apostles. My former speculation, fortunately, was not powerful enough to keep the Lord from showering this blessing upon his people here.

We actually first learned of the announcement through my sister Elizabeth, who texted me the moment it was announced. She beat the internet connection we were watching by a minute or two, which is why her text took us by such great surprise. Upon hearing of the announcement, I sent a text message to my friend Vai Sikahema on the subject asking if he had any previous or further knowledge. He responded immediately, also via text message. This is what his text said:

There is much remarkable about what he said, among them, the fact that Philadelphia's mayor is reputable AND supportive. Of course, what could do more to improve a city than the presence of a House of the Lord? I'm glad the decision seemed so obvious to our chief municipal executive.

So, I do believe this is the site. You're welcome to find it on google.com/maps street view for yourself. The location is Broad and Spring Garden, Philadelphia, PA

I'm up for getting together with some other people who would accept my $10 (or more if I can get a raise :) ) towards a fund to buy the parking lot across the street to convert into a visitor's center. Or garden. Or Family History Center. Or something the church could use to benefit the area further. SEPTA subway stops, such as is also to be found on this corner, are not always famous for the upstanding characters they attract. . .

The location, not by coincidence, is only a few subway stops up the Broad Street line from our tiny Branch. Both seem to be unexpected locations for sacred buildings (then again, our branch doesn't exactly have it's own building. It's more of a one-stop shop; Hollywood tans, Income Tax, The Church of Jesus Christ. . .)There's our branch, the blue glass building you see in this image :)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I first sent in my documentation for a new passport probably about 3 months ago. It got sent back to me. I sent it in again. Again, sent back. I'm guessing my photo wasn't up to its requirements both times. So I sent it in for the third time about 3 weeks ago and today my new passport arrived in the mail!

And wow. I have to say, this new passport is AWESOME and I just had to share. I've had 3 or 4 previous passports. And let me tell you, none of them looked like (or changed as much from one to the next) as this one. First of all, it is WAY more patriotic. While in the old ones, you'd open right up to the picture and info page, this one invites you to page through it. You open to a black and white image with words from the national anthem scripted above it. The next has a quote from Abe Lincoln. THEN you flip to the picture/info page, with an eagle pictured in the background across the 2-page sperad, and with the first words of the Constitution written across. I love this, as I'm sure most people (myself included) rarely get the opportunity to read those beautiful words.

After that, you flip through a few informational pages and all the visa pages, all of which have different American scenes in the background accompanied by quotes. Overall, it's just really fantastic and beautiful and touching. :)

Originally written by Daniel & Preethi. Now, just about Daniel & Preethi, and also Nat. Tidbits about travel, food, books, and fashion, with an occasional foray into diapers. And lots about a certain baby.